By: Melanie Reichert, Broyles & Ricafort PC
Our profession rewards vigilance, urgency, and precision. But these same habits that make us effective (spotting risk, anticipating conflict, and staying constantly available) can also keep our bodies’ stress response activated long after the workday ends. The results include increased anxiety, sleep disruption, irritability, reduced concentration, and no surprise, burnout. In 2019, I discovered a solution that works for me, and I’m excited to share it with all of you! Join me on August 13, 2026, for Rage and Rest: Using Endorphins and Mindfulness to Reset.
Our stress is not simply a scheduling problem. Our entire workday involves adversarial conflict, demanding clients, high stakes, and exposure to others’ trauma. Bar association reporting and well-being research continue to show that we face elevated risks of burnout, anxiety, depression, and stress-related impairment. In other words, stress in legal practice remains both cultural and physiological.
A hard workout does more than improve fitness; it can interrupt the stress cycle. Exercise is associated with lower perceived stress, better sleep, improved mood, and a clearer transition out of work mode. Physical activity also affects systems involved in stress regulation, including autonomic balance and neurochemical signaling. Vigorous workouts can be effective for releasing tension and improving mood. Recently, I was already scheduled to teach a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) cycle class after a particularly hard day in the law business. I warned my participants that I would be “riding angry.” After the 30-minute ride, I had sweated out every last bit of frustration from the day. . .and the rage ride was born!
But HIIT might not be what your body needs. Exercise helps mental health overall, but the type and intensity matter. Moderate or restorative exercise may be better when the nervous system is already overloaded. Recent evidence suggests mind-body exercise, such as yoga or Les Mills BodyBalance, may be especially effective for lowering cortisol in psychologically distressed adults. When I lead a mind-body class, I find that I need the benefits and feel the benefits just as much as the participants!
The practical lesson is simple: movement helps, but we should match intensity to what our bodies need on a given day. On August 13, we’ll sample both an intense HIIT-style ride and a restorative mind-body practice.
Mindfulness is not just passive relaxation; it is training attention and awareness. Systematic reviews of mindfulness-based interventions in working adults have found benefits for stress, emotional exhaustion, anxiety, depression, sleep, and relaxation. For lawyers, those gains matter because the job requires focus, emotional regulation, judgment, and the ability to recover after difficult interactions. Mindfulness can help create a pause between stimulus and response, reducing the tendency to stay mentally fused with the last hearing, the next filing, or a difficult client conversation. For us, even a 60-second meditation can feel like an eternity. But as with anything, consistency and practice are key!
The best approach is not either-or. A sustainable routine might combine several workouts of varying intensity each week with brief mindfulness practices woven into the day, such as two minutes of breathing before a hearing or a short walk between tasks. In a profession that prizes constant readiness, both movement and mindfulness help us restore clear thinking, sound judgment, lower reactivity, and sustainable performance.
- Janssen M, Heerkens Y, Kuijer W, van der Heijden B, Engels J. Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on employees’ mental health: A systematic review. PLOS ONE. 2018;13(1):e0191332.
- Shoker D, Desmet L, Ledoux N, Héron A. Effects of standardized mindfulness programs on burnout: a systematic review and original analysis from randomized controlled trials. Frontiers in Public Health. 2024;12.
- Li X, Huang J, Zhu F. The Optimal Exercise Modality and Dose for Cortisol Reduction in Psychological Distress: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis. Sports. 2025;13(12):415.
- Brough P, Boase A. Occupational stress management in the legal profession: Development, validation, and assessment of a stress-management instrument. Australian Journal of Psychology. 2019.
- American Bar Association. Attorney Well-Being: A Pressing Concern for the Legal Profession. 2024.
- American Bar Association. Nervous System Dysregulation in Lawyers: Why It Happens and How to Heal. 2026.
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